The package of Askinosie Chocolate’s dark chocolate bar from Cortés, Honduras shows a smiling farmer, backed by cocoa trees. This is Fermin Arriaga, the lead farmer at Finca Patricia, which supplies premium cocoa beans to Askinosie. TechnoServe is showing farmers that they can get a higher price for their…
In 2010, university student Julio Baltodano surveyed the local apparel industry in Managua, Nicaragua, and devised a clever business idea. Together with his friend Verónica Bucardo, Julio envisioned IKO Imagen as a leather and textile manufacturer that would specialize in handbags and brand merchandising, or placing company logos on t-shirts…
On a farm in the northern Nicaraguan town of Chagüite Grande, Melvin Estrada tends to his cabbage crop. He and his hired workers pick the plants, inspect them for quality and load them into a truck bound for a local collection center – and eventually a major supermarket. Melvin used…
In honor of International Women’s Day, we share a story about an inspiring woman in Nicaragua who has found independence and self-sufficiency through farming.
In Nicaragua, Iveth Juárez, a small business owner who processes and sells cereal to the local market, had attended seminars, workshops, courses and training sessions on accounting and finance. But at the end of each session, she always felt the same sense of confusion.
Sons and daughters of landless farm workers, these producers gained ownership of land in the village of Gualtaya through 1970s agrarian reforms. Their plots have the combination of altitude and shade needed to produce some of the country’s best coffee. But for years, these farmers sold their coffee through local…
Mónica’s path to independence began three years ago when she joined an association of women from the San Lucas Tolimán region, who learned practical skills like weaving in an effort to find income opportunities. Mónica’s husband had abandoned the family, leaving her in debt and with few opportunities for employment.
Oil palm farmers in Honduras more than doubled the amount of oil they can collect thanks to a partnership between TechnoServe and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food for Progress program. These small-scale farmers now own an oil processing plant, enabling them to generate income and jobs for their…
Carmela Francisca Sacuj Matzar is a leader among Mayan women in San Andrés Semetabaj, a poor rural community in central Guatemala. As the founder of Asociación Visión Maya Mujeres, a women’s association that produces textiles and cultivates mushrooms, Sacuj is helping 50 women to generate income and improve the…
El Petén has long suffered as one of Guatemala’s poorest areas despite its bounty of natural resources. Two thirds of El Petén’s residents live below the poverty line and half lack sanitary services. Many of the children living in this area are severely malnourished, jeopardizing Guatemala’s future generations. Gladis Rodriguez…
